Case Study: This agricultural technology company introduced Pisys Permit to Work software at one of their R&D Sites as part of an efficiency drive. They achieved a speedier approvals process, knowledge of where contractors were working within their site and a site-wide overview for all ongoing work on a plot plan.
The Challenge: Co-ordinating Permit Approvals Across a Vast Site
The sheer size of the site – consisting of a vast research greenhouse, laboratories, office buildings and a 640-acre working farm – presented its own challenges: the company’s PTW process required three authorisation signatures on a paper permit before it can be issued. Often, permit creators did not know who to ask for their signature, and where to find them. This caused delays when contractors arrived to carry out work under a permit, and the permit was not ready to be issued.
A faster way to obtain authorisations in readiness for permit issue was needed.
The Solution: Switching to Pisys PTW While Retaining the Existing Approvals Workflow
Pisys transferred the company's existing permit questions from their paper forms onto the PTW software. The existing approvals workflow was retained. It was important to keep a degree of flexibility in terms of the order in which the pre-issue approvals would happen. This kept the system simple and training.
The switch to the electronic system went smoothly during a two-day Risk/Permit Training Workshop run by the Company’s own HSE team. Pisys supplied a software trainer for one of the days. Two weeks later, all paper permit to work pads were taken out of circulation and kept as a backup only.
The HSE Advisor in charge of the PTW Project has only good things to say about working together during this process:
“Pisys have been absolutely brilliant, so helpful, nothing was too much for them”.
The Results: Ready For Contractors, Informed about Work Locations
Nowadays, thanks to going digital with Pisys PTW, personnel can view all permits requiring pre-issue authorisations and add their initials electronically from their PCs, tablets or mobile phones. Before the final permit issue to contractors, a worksite visit takes place .
PTW has not replaced vital worksite visits (and paper copies are still displayed there), but it has greatly reduced the time it takes from creation to issue of permits and improved the overall efficiency of the permit process.
In the Project office, there is now a new screen which displays a plot plan of the whole site, with coloured dots showing where the work is taking place. This means that HSE and project personnel can see where on the site people are working, and what contractors are on premise.
“The projects team are really happy with the software”,
reports the HSE Advisor a couple of months after the rollout. And if the people using the software are happy, everybody else on the project is, too.
Find out more about Pisys PTW by visiting our Permit to Work page.